Product Description

In the all-too-distant future, a bunch of people play a dangerous sport
called Fightball, and James Ernest wrote a game about it.

What is Fightball? It's another real-time card game like BRAWL and FALLING,
James Ernest's groundbreaking speed games. FALLING and BRAWL have been
nominated for a total of 6 Origins Awards, winning Best Card Game Expansion
and Best Graphic Design of a Card Game in 2000 (for BRAWL: Club Foglio).
Now James Ernest, along with co-creator Mike Selinker, turn the real-time
genre up one notch with this sophisticated and blazing-fast card game.

The setting is the streets of the future. Not the real future, but the
crazy apocalyptic future we all know and love. In this particular future,
gangs of street thugs have (again) become enamored of the world of modern
professional sports. Unfortunately, they have no real idea of how these
modern sports were played, besides what they can guess from old photographs
and what they know about the sports of their day. If all future sports use
multiple balls, surely so did the sports of the twentieth century, right?
And even if they didn't, they should have.

Thus was born Fightball, a very weird version of Basketball with at least
three balls (maybe more, we're not sure), two goals, and extremely violent
gameplay. The sport is played on the streets and overseen by flying robot
referees, and it's played by the weirdest assortment of folks you're likely
to see in a game. Here's a peek:

The Cavaliers: If there was a medieval reenactment society in the future,
they'd play Fightball dressed as musketeers. That's what we think, anyway.
The Cavaliers are an all-for-one sort of team, with an uncanny ability to
work together. Plus they look smashing in their "kingdom's" heraldic colors.

Team Sport: Nothing says "sporty" like a random assortment of used sports
equipment. At least, not to the boys and girls of Team Sport. They're the
only team with a goalie, a shootist, and (most importantly) a boomeranger!

How does it play? Basically, Fightball is like Basketball. Players build a
"court" out of 24 cards and play four rounds. The play is fast and furious,
with each player playing as fast as he can. When one player reaches the
"BUZZ" card (at the bottom of the deck) the round is over. Now, players
score each location on the court, looking for a sequence of cards starting
with a player, then a ball, then a shot. Other cards, like blockers, can
affect the quality of the shot. Some shots succeed, and are worth points.
Others fail, and are worth nothing. The highest score at the end of four
rounds wins the game!

Contents:

Product Reviews

Real time card games. The idea interested me but
the themes never did. Brawl seemed just like a one
on one street fight (which is exactly what it is)
and that just wasn't the right take on the idea to
make me want to buy a bunch of decks and play.
Fightball came along and finally there seemed to
be a story setting that was intriguing to me. So I
decided to dabble into this style of game play and
purchased my first set of 2 decks. The first buy
was for The Aztecs Vs. The Dark.

This game really requires the right kind of
players. There is definitely a segment of gamers
out there who will simply hate the mechanics of
this game and therefore never will find any
enjoyment in Fightball. I really enjoy the hectic
paced play as fast as you can feel of the game
with both players playing cards simultaneously.
This game is one of those that seriously takes a
round or 2 to get use to it but I've found most
players are able to then really play the game as
it was meant to be played.

As with a lot of games knowing your opponents
style of play is the biggest part of your
strategy. Some players will tend to block a lot
and others almost not at all. Some players will
use their specials left and right some will be
more cautious (as using them might nullify the
shot.) Knowing who you are playing will certainly
be a benefit.

The game lasts for 4 rounds with card being played
frantically then once all cards have been played
the completed piles of cars and scored. The player
with the most points after 4 rounds (periods) is
the winner.

After playing the first 2 teams I finally was
encouraged enough to go ahead and purchase the
other 2 sets of teams. I know own all 6 teams and
this is really enough. The only real complaint I
have for this game is the "court" cards. The court
really should be a board, but to rememdy this I
have simply laid out the court cards in the
corrent formation and then used clear contact
paper to laminate them. This makes them flexible
and durable and neatly placed. I suggest this to
any Fightball player.

This is a fun little game that we use when we've
filled up our Settlers or Ticket to Ride game to
let others keep playing at our group. A game runs
about 20-30 mins. and is just a fun diversion.

Other Resources for Fightball: Cavaliers vs. Team Sport:

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